126 * THE horse's rescue. 



pay and no credit. If he had given me credit for 

 curino- Mike I would not have said a word. 



"I paid you for shoeing." 



"Yes." 



"Then you have no honor." 



So much for that hard job. Let us go on with 

 this horse fight. It is paying business. 



There was another racket around Bennett's hotel. 

 Mike ran away. Mr. Bennett was in the pump busi- 

 ness. A party of three went out in the country to set 

 a pump. Some pumps made up the load. Mike was 

 the propelling power. Jack Eacker was the agent and 

 boss. lie was a reporter for the papers in this town, 

 and was a clever fellow. He was quite a bugler — a 

 good match for me on that. I was sorry to see Jack 

 hurt, for he did get hurt; his face was badl}^ bruised, 

 and shoulder injured. There was no use of my telh 

 ing them anything before or after the shipwreck- I 

 was in the last stages of lunac}^ They knew it all, 

 and I let them have their own way^ and kept on a 

 straight line. Mike spread them all out along the 

 road, pumps and tools, and made a bad shipwreck. 



While all this raeket is going on I must go and see 

 Mike. I am quite a hand to talk with horses. I en- 

 joy talking with horses better than I do with some 



men. 



"Mike, how did you come to shipwreck those fel- 

 lows so ?" 

 * " I did not have room enough for my hind legs to 

 have full swing." 



" I see the skin and hair are all off your cords, above 

 your hocks ; that must have hurt you ?" 



